The President's courage to seek a non-military end to the Cuban Missile Crisis saved America from a nuclear war with Russia. He had little support from his advisers, Senate leaders or the military that wanted to attack Cuba...

JFK quipped at the time: one thing about the military's solution to every problem is there will be no one left to tell them they were wrong...

Excerpts:
Kennedy was particularly alarmed by his trigger-happy Air Force chief, cigar-chomping General Curtis LeMay, who firmly believed the U.S. should unleash a pre-emptive nuclear broadside against Russia while America still enjoyed massive arms superiority.

Throughout the 13-day Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy was under relentless pressure from LeMay and nearly his entire national-security circle to "fry" Cuba, in the Air Force chief's memorable language. But J.F.K., whose only key support in the increasingly tense Cabinet Room meetings came from his brother Bobby and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, kept searching for a nonmilitary solution. When Kennedy, assiduously working the back channels to the Kremlin, finally succeeded in cutting a deal with Khrushchev, the world survived "the most dangerous moment in human history," in Schlesinger's words. But no one at the time knew just how dangerous. Years later, attending the 40th anniversary of the crisis at a conference in Havana, Schlesinger, Sorensen and McNamara were stunned to learn that if U.S. forces had attacked Cuba, Russian commanders on the island were authorized to respond with tactical and strategic nuclear missiles.

The Joint Chiefs had assured Kennedy during the crisis that "no nuclear warheads were in Cuba at the time," Sorensen grimly noted. "They were wrong." If Kennedy had bowed to his military advisers' pressure, a vast swath of the urban U.S. within missile range of the Soviet installations in Cuba could have been reduced to radioactive rubble.

...

Kennedy often said he wanted his epitaph to be "He kept the peace." Even Khrushchev and Castro, Kennedy's toughest foreign adversaries, came to appreciate J.F.K.'s commitment to that goal. The roly-poly Soviet leader, clowning and growling, had thrown the young President off his game when they met at the Vienna summit in 1961. But after weathering storms like the Cuban missile crisis, the two leaders had settled into a mutually respectful quest for détente. When Khrushchev got the news from Dallas in November 1963, he broke down and sobbed in the Kremlin, unable to perform his duties for days. Despite his youth, Kennedy was a "real statesman," Khrushchev later wrote in his memoir, after he was pushed from power less than a year following J.F.K.'s death. If Kennedy had lived, he wrote, the two men could have brought peace to the world.

When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, John Kenneth Galbraith wrote that he was relieved that the President had died quickly, fearing the destruction of his wit and intellect as the greater evil.John Kenneth Galbraith

Right wingers and neocons have taken up JFK as one of their own... like the moron Richard Perle...

Neoconservative Richard Perle said he was inspired as a young man by President Kennedy when he said in his Inaugural address:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

President Kennedy challenged, inspired and enticed America and the world to join an effort. One of his favorite sayings was "let us"...

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

And the "Prince of Darkness" also ignored the ending of JFK's Inaugural Address:

So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms--and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah--to "undo the heavy burdens . . . (and) let the oppressed go free."

And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again--not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are-- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it--and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.President John F. Kennedy - January 20, 1961

So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

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Seems like something Obama could use in his speech to convince people why we should talk to Iran & Cuba, or did he already do that?

I'm a conspiracy nut (to a certain degree--but mostly keep it in my fat head), and I think JFK was assassinated by the CIA with coordinating help from GHWB. Whether that's the case or not is probably better for a different thread.

I think JFK's assassination was one of the cruelest acts to this nation from a sick, sick individual or group who had no idea what they were really doing and what effect it would have on this nation.

It transformed this nation in one decade from a nation that overwhelmingly trusted its government (well, at least white people--can't blame African Americans for their distrust) to a nation that didn't believe their government anymore, particularly when the scoundrel vice president (who I think was in on the murder of JFK) took over and escalated Viet Nam beyond reason.

JFK's death, along with Viet Nam, royally screwed over this nation. The only good thing to come out of the 60s was the Civil Rights Movement, and they had their act together. Peaceful, successful, well-done.

The country still hasn't recovered from the late 60s and 70s. Viet Nam was a total disaster for this country, and the effects are still with us.

It transformed this nation in one decade from a nation that overwhelmingly trusted its governmentnot true (well, at least white people--can't blame BLACKS for their distrust) to a nation that didn't believe their government anymore, particularly when the scoundrel Democrat vice president (who I think was in on the murder of JFK) took over and escalated Viet Nam beyond reason.

JFK's death, along with Viet Nam, royally screwed over this nation. The one BAD thing to come out of the 60s was the Civil Rights Movement, and they had their heads up there ass Peaceful, successful, well-done. Devisive,asskissin time in American history till now.

The country still hasn't recovered from the late 60s and 70s. Viet Nam was a total disaster for this country, and the effects are still with us.

I'm a conspiracy nut (to a certain degree--but mostly keep it in my fat head), and I think JFK was assassinated by the CIA with coordinating help from GHWB. Whether that's the case or not is probably better for a different thread.

I think JFK's assassination was one of the cruelest acts to this nation from a sick, sick individual or group who had no idea what they were really doing and what effect it would have on this nation.

It transformed this nation in one decade from a nation that overwhelmingly trusted its government (well, at least white people--can't blame African Americans for their distrust) to a nation that didn't believe their government anymore, particularly when the scoundrel vice president (who I think was in on the murder of JFK) took over and escalated Viet Nam beyond reason.

JFK's death, along with Viet Nam, royally screwed over this nation. The only good thing to come out of the 60s was the Civil Rights Movement, and they had their act together. Peaceful, successful, well-done.

The country still hasn't recovered from the late 60s and 70s. Viet Nam was a total disaster for this country, and the effects are still with us.

Roe V. Wade didn't help.

Click to expand...

I dont know who murdered our beloved President, but I DO know the events in Dallas didnt happen the way the Warren Commission reported. None of the physical, medical or eyewitness evidence matches the infamous Single Bullet Theory. BTW, every time I see Arlen Specter it reminds what an ass the man is. The Warren Report and Specters SBT is Americas version of the Emperors New Clothes

My guess is the trained CIA assassins from Operation Northwood, financed by elements of the military/industrial complex Ike warned us about in his farewell address to the nation. The mafia had a golden goose in Cuba when Fulgencio Batista was in power, so Im sure they wanted back into the casino business there.

Kennedy was a bone in their throats

From David Talbot (Time)
The President's brother quickly concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin, had not acted alone. And Bobby immediately suspected the CIA's secret war on Fidel Castro as the source of the plot. At his home that Friday afternoon, Bobby confronted CIA Director John McCone, asking him point-blank whether the agency had killed J.F.K. (McCone denied it.) Later, R.F.K. ordered aides to explore a possible Mafia connection to the crime. And in a revealing phone conversation with Harry Ruiz-Williams, a trusted friend in the anti-Castro movement, Kennedy said bluntly, "One of your guys did it." Though the CIA and the FBI were already working strenuously to portray Oswald as a communist agent, Bobby Kennedy rejected this view. Instead, he concluded Oswald was a member of the shadowy operation that was seeking to overthrow Castro.

Bobby knew that a dark alliancethe CIA, the Mafia and militant Cuban exileshad formed to assassinate Castro and force a regime change in Havana. That's because President Kennedy had given his brother the Cuban portfolio after the CIA's Bay of Pigs fiasco. But Bobby, who would begin some days by dropping by the CIA's headquarters in Langley, Va., on his way to the Justice Department, never managed to get fully in control of the agency's sprawling, covert war on Castro. Now, he suspected, this underground worldwhere J.F.K. was despised for betraying the anti-Castro causehad spawned his brother's assassination.

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